Registering device



Sept. 30 1969 KEI-CH T REGISTERING DEVICE 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Jan.12, 1968 Ila/7s Z/MMKRMANN By dazed Ike/r ATTOR/V/E Sept. 30, 1969 KELC"3,469,775

REGISTERING DEVICE Filed Jan. 12, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United StatesPatent 3,469,775 REGISTERING DEVICE Heinz Kelch, Villingen, and HansZimmermann, Schwenningen, Germany, assignors t0 Kienzle ApparateG.m.b.H., Villingen, Black Forest, Germany Filed Jan. 12, 1968, Ser. No.697,437 Claims priority, applicatioir 2(iirmany, Jan. 20, 1967,

US. Cl. 235-1 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE In a counter the housingthereof is provided with an observation window. A plurality of countingwheels or number wheels are arranged inwardly spaced from theobservation window so as to be observable therethrough. An opaqueshield, provided with a plurality of cutouts through which respectiveones of the number wheels may be observed, is interposed between thenumber wheels and the observation window and is movable into and out ofsuch position from the exterior of the housing without necessitatingopening of the latter.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to registeringdevices in general and more particularly to registering devices of thetype wherein rotating number wheels are observed through a window in thehousing of the device. More specifically, the present invention relatesto the shield member which is interposed between the observation windowof such devices and the registering assembly thereof.

Registering devices are well known which consist of registeringassemblies comprising a plurality of number wheels, arranged within ahousing in such a manner that the number wheels are visible through anobservation window provided in the housing. Devices of this type aremost frequently used as counters, in which case the rotatable wheels arenumber wheels and each carry a series of numbers. However, such devicescan also be used in other applications and the wheels may carry indiciaother than numbers, for instance symbols, pictorial representations orthe like. For the sake of expediency these arrangements will hereafterbe designated as counters, and the wheels be designated as numberwheels, although it is to be understood that no limitation is to beinferred from this.

The number wheels in such counters may have different diameters, forinstance a diameter of 70-80 centimeters or more, and they, togetherwith the entire registering or counter assembly are shielded from directobservation through the observation window by a shield member which isinterposed between the latter and the counting assembly. The shieldmember is provided with a plurality of openings through each of whichthere is normally visible a portion of the circumferential face of therespective number Wheel, and thus it is possible to observe through eachsuch opening that number or symbol which is provided on theaforementioned portion of the circumferential face of the respectivewheel. Of course, such counting devices may be used in a great varietyof applications, for instance to meter gasoline in a gasoline station,to count particles in scientific applications, or the like. To allow forthe different applications it is necessary that the shield member beprovided on that side thereof which faces the observation window withdesignations of the units being measured, to indicate for instancewhether liters are being measured, particles are being counted, gallonsare being registered, or the like. It is to be understood that one andthe same counter can be usually used for any one of these variousapplications. Furthermore, the purchaser of such counters usually wishesto affix his companys name, address, symbol or similar information onthe shield member for purposes of identification and/or advertising.

All such information could, of course, be provided on the observationwindow at the exterior thereof. However, many of these counters areemployed in exposed locations where they are subject to weathering, orwhere the data could be accidentally erased from the outer side of theobservation window by careless wiping with abrasive substances, or inother manner. For this reason, it is standard practice to provide allsuch data on the shield member which is protected within the housing.

The housing, in turn, must be sealed against certain undesirableinfluences. Firstly, if the housing is to be exposed to the elements,then it must be as weather-tight as possible and strong so as towithstand the influence of the elements. Furthermore, and regardless ofwhere the counter is to be employed, it is essential that the housingprovide protection against unauthorized access to the counting assembly,that is against tampering. It is therefore customary in counting devicesof the type here under discussion to provide a strong and tight housingusually a cast housing, which has only such openings as are absolutelyessential, for instance for passage of the drive shaft which isconnected with the counting assembly and for pasage of the zero-settingshaft. The shield member was mounted in place within the housing and theobservation window was then mounted in the housing and provided with alead seal which was so afiixed that the observation window could not beremoved without damaging the lead seal and thereby indicating the factthat tampering had taken place. This, however, has proven to be ratherdisadvantageous because it obviously precluded individual afiixing ofsymbols, letterings, emblems, or the like to the shield member which wassealed within the housing. Evidently, it is not possible for themanufacturer of such counting devices to have on hand stocks of shieldmembers which would cover all contingencies as to the information whichis provided on them. Furthermore, even if it were possible it would beeconomically highly disadvantageous to rely on such a system, because itwould then be necessary to custom install the required shield members inaccordance with the wishes of an individual customer. Thus, if acustomer purchases only a small number of counting devices, the expensesinvolved in withdrawing the partly assembled devices from the generalmanufacturing series, and custom-finishing their assembly with therequired shield members, would make such counters almost prohibitivelyexpensive. Furthermore, the customer frequently wishes to makelast-minute changes for which no provision could of course be made atall, by the manufacturer.

Under these circumstances, it has heretofore been necessary for themanufacturer to deliver the counting devices without afiixing the leadseal, thus giving the customer the opportunity to insert the shieldmember of his choice. This, of course, made it necessary for thecustomer to open the housing, insert the shield member, and again closethe housing and it is evident that such manipulations by personnel notskilled in the handling of these counting devices will always bring withit the danger of damage to the counting assembly. This, in turn, made itimpossible for the manufacturer to provide a meaningful guarantee ofquality. Furthermore, it was necessary for the customer to return thecounting devices, into which he has inserted his own shield members, toa service station of the manufacturer for affixing of his lead seal.

All of this is highly complicated and expensive, and

adversely influences the quality and integrity of such counting devices.

It is therefore a general object of the present invention to provide asolution which will overcome the aforementioned disadvantages.

A more particular object of the invention is to provide a solution whichwill make it possible for the counting device to be closed and-sealed bythe manufacturer against any access to the registering assembly withinthe housing, while enabling inserting and withdrawal of the shieldmember from the exterior of the housing so that the customer himself mayinsert his own shield member, or may affix or change lettering,numbering, indicia, symbols or the like on the shield member at will andinsert the shield member into the housing without having the possibilityof access to components of the counter which are arranged within thehousing.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In accordance with one feature of our inventionwe provide, in a registering device of the type here under discussion,wherein a registering assembly including at least one rotatableindicia-bearing wheel is arranged within a closed housing whoseperipheral wall means includes a transparent wall portion, and whereinan opaque shield member or element is located in the housing in a planein which it is interposed between the transparent wall portion and theregistering assembly, a slot which is provided in the peripheral wallmeans and is elongated in the aforementioned plane, such slot beingdimensioned for enabling insertion of the shield element into, and thewithdrawal of the shield element from the housing therethrough, whilethe housing remains sealed against tampering, with the registeringassembly.

The construction according to our invention meets the requirements madeby the purchasers of counters as to accessibility of the shield memberand at the same time provides the possibility of factory sealing thehousing against tampering. Furthermore, it eliminates the need for themanufacturer to maintain the shield element in stock in a great varietyof different types, and reduces the assembly costs significantly becausethe necessity for special assembly of small quantities of counters iseliminated and all counters of one type, regardless of how many countersare included in a series, can now be assembled in identical manner.

The invention itself, both as to its construction and its method ofoperation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, willbe best understood from the following description of specificembodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a front-elevational view ofa counter embodying the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a section taken on the line A-B of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a perspective detail view illustrating the shield elementemployed in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Discussing now the drawing indetail it will be seen that the housing of a counter is generallyidentified with reference numeral 1 and will here be assumed toconstitute a box of rectangular configuration. A lid 2 closes the upperside of the housing, and a bottom plate 3 closes the lower side of thehousing. Both the lid 2 and the bottom plate 3 are suitably secured tothe housing 1 so that they cannot be removed from the exterior thereof.

Arranged within the housing are a plurality of number wheels 5 (onevisible in FIG. 2) all of which are mounted on a common shaft a portionof which extends outwardly through a side wall of the housing 1 andcarries the setting knob 4. The number wheels are provided on theircircumferential faces with numbers in the conventional manner. A studshaft 6 extends downwardly through the bottom plate 3 of the housing andis adapted to be connected to the device whose operations are to beregistered by the counter.

The front face 7 of the housing 1 is provided with an opening 8 withinwhich there is secured a transparent member 9, inclined with referenceto the lid 2 and bottom 3 constituting part of the peripheral housingwall, as shown in FIG. 2, and which member 9 may be of glass or othersuitable material and constitutes an observation window. The numberwheels 5, and a so-called control counter 10 are located between the endplates 11 in the conventional manner. With these end plates 11, thenumber wheels 5 and the control counter 10 form the registeringassembly.

Interposed between the registering assembly and the window member 9 isan opaque shield element 12, which in the illustrated embodiment isprovided with two cutouts 13 and 14. The number wheels 5 are visiblethrough the cutout 13 and the control counter 10 is visible in thecutout 14. This is illustrated in FIG. 1. Again, this arrangement isconventional. It is to be noted that the window member 9 cannot beremoved from the exterior of the housing so that the housing is forintended purposes closed against undesired tampering once it has beensealed with a lead seal, in a manner which is still to be described.

The shield element 12 is mounted on a strip-shaped support member 17with two screws 15 and 16, although it is to be understood that thismounting arrangement is shown only by way of example. In accordance withthe invention, the bottom plate 3 of the housing is provided with anelongated slot 18, which is so configurated that the support member 17is receivable therewithin as shown in FIG. 2, and that the shieldelement 12 can be inserted into and removed from the interior of thehousing through this slot 18. Screws 19 and 20 serve to secure thesupport member 17 to the bottom plate 3 of the housing, as is seen mostclearly in FIG. 1. For this purpose, the support member 17, which asillustrated in FIG. 3 consists of a strip-shaped first portion 21 and anupright portion 22, which extends upwardly from the strip-shaped portion21 and is provided with a cutout 23 in which the shield element 12 isreceived, is provided with bores or holes 24 and 25. It will be noticedthat the bore 24 in this embodiment is countersunk so as to accept arecessed screw 19, whereas the bore 25 is cylindrical throughout andaccepts a screw 20 whose head projects outwardly beyond the bore 25. Thehead of the screw 20 is provided with a bore 26 therethrough, and whenthe separate member 17 carrying the shield element 12 is received in theslot 18 and the screws 19 and 20 have been affixed in the respectivebores a wire or wirelike element 27 is passed through the bore 26 andthrough a bore provided in a projection 28 on the bottom wall 3 of thehousing and a lead seal 29 or similar element then connects the freeends of the element 27 to one another so that the screw 20 can beremoved only if the element 27 or the seal 29 are destroyed thusproviding evidence of tampering.

It is clear that with this arrangement the housing can be completelyclosed at the factory except for the provision of the slot 18, andwherever the connection of housing portions to one another by means ofsuch connecting elements as screws, bolts or the like is necessary, alead seal of the type just described can be affixed, so that suchconnections cannot be separated without providing evidence of tampering.The shield member 12, carried by the support member 17, can be eithersupplied in a standard blank version by the factory or it can besupplied by the customer. If it is supplied in a blank version by thefactory, than the customer can remove it, provide any desiredinformation thereon and reinsert it in the manner just described.Regardless of which approach is chosen, however, the counting assemblyor registering assembly within the housing will be protected againsttampering because access to it is impossible. This makes it possible forthe manufacturer to provide a quality guarantee which is not jeopardizedby the possibility of unauthorized intentional or unintentionaltampering. The seal provided by passing the element 27 through the bore26 and a complementary bore in the member 28, and by afiixing the freeends of the element 27 with a lead or other seal 29, is not absolutelynecessary because it does not serve to protect the registering assemblywithin the housing, but only provide protection against unauthorizedremoval of the shield element 12. For this reason, this particular sealcan be afiixed by the customer, rather than by the manufacturer.

It will be evident that various modifications of the illustratedembodiment are possible without deviating from the concept of theinvention. Thus, the supporting element 17 could be omitted and theshield element 12 be downwardly extended and directly connected to thebottom wall 3 of the housing, or for that matter, to any other wall ofthe housing in which the slot 18 is provided. In this case, the slot 18could be considerably narrower than illustrated, and it would beadvantageous to angle the lower edge portion of the shield element 12 sothat it overlies a portion of the housing wall in which the slot isprovided, and could be secured thereto by means of screws passing intothis wall through the angled portion of the shield element 12.

It is clear that the slots 18 need not be provided in the bottom wall 3of the housing, although this will ordinarily be preferable because itis usually the bottom Wall which is best protected from the elements. Itis also clear that, if desired, a suitable seal can be provided to sealthe slot 18 against the intrusion of dust, moisture or the like, andthis could be in form of elastomeric material or other suitable sealingmaterial which would effect a seal upon introduction of the supportingelement 17 into the slot 18. Similar arrangement is of course alsopossible if the supporting element 17 is omitted and the shield element12 downwardly extended as already discussed.

It will be understood that each of the elements de scribed above, or twoor more together, may also find a useful application in other types ofconstructions difiering from the types described above.

While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in aregistering device, it is not intended to be limited to the detailsshown, since various modifications and structural changes may be madewithout departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.

Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist ofthe present invention that others can by applying current knowledgereadily adapt it for various applications without omitting features thatfrom the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essentialcharacteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.

What is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent isset forth in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a registering device of the type comprising a registering assemblyincluding at least one rotatable indicia-bearing wheel, a closed housingsurrounding said assembly and being sealed against tampering with thelatter, said housing comprising peripheral wall means including atransparent wall portion, and an opaque shield element located in saidhousing in a plane in' which it is interposed between said transparentwall portion and said assembly and having aperture means through whichthe indica of said wheel may be viewed in response to rotation of saidwheel, the improvement consisting in providing said peripheral wallmeans with a slot elongated in said plane and dimensioned for enablinginsertion of said shield element into, and withdrawal thereof from saidhousing through said slot while said housing remains protected againsttampering with said registering assembly because access to theregistering assembly is impossible.

2. In a device of the type defined in claim 1, wherein said peripheralwall means of said housing comprises two spaced substantially parallelperipheral wall portions both inclined with reference to saidtransparent wall portion, said slot being provided in one of saidperipheral wall portions.

3. In a device of the type defined in claim 2, wherein said oneperipheral wall portion constitutes the bottom wall of said housing.

4. In a device of the type defined in claim 2, wherein said shieldelement comprises an elongated supporting member, and a sheet memberextending along said supporting member carried thereby and projectingtherefrom, said sheet member being provided with said aperture means,said supporting member and said sheet member being respectively adaptedto overlie said slot closing the same 'and to be interposed between saidtransparent wall portion and said assembly when said shield element isinserted into said housing.

5. In a device of the type defined in claim 4, and further comprisingmounting means releasably mounting said sheet member on said supportingmember.

6. In a device of the type defined in claim 4, wherein said supportingmember is an elongated supporting bar.

7. In a device of the type defined in claim 6, wherein said slot is ofstepped inwardly converging cross-section and comprises a wider outerportion dimensioned to accommodate said supporting bar therewithin, anda narrower inner section dimensioned for passage of said sheet membertherethrough into and out of said housing.

8. In a device of the type defined in claim 7, and further comprisingconnecting means operative for connecting said supporting bar to saidone peripheral wall portion of said housing.

9. In a device of the type defined in claim 8, wherein said oneperipheral wall portion and said supporting bar are each provided withpairs of bores which register with one another when said shield elementis inserted into said housing; and further comprising screw meansadapted to be threaded into the registering bores.

10. In a device of the type defined in claim 1, and further comprisingconnecting means releasably connecting said shield element to saidhousing ext'eriorly of the latter.

References Cited FOREIGN PATENTS 1,151,672 8/1957 France.

847,899 9/1960 Great Britain.

RICHARD B. WILKINSON, Primary Examiner S. A. WAL, Assistant Examiner US.Cl. X.R. 116-129

